1. "My father once told me that the most important thing every man should know is what he would die for. If you don't know that, he said, what are you worth?Nothing. You're not a man at all."

2. "I had no doubt that something cruel and catastrophic had happened before I was even born, yet the comte and comtesse, my parents, would not tell me what it was. As a result my organ of curiosity was made irritable and I grew into the most restless and unhealthy creature imaginable…"

3. "Lloyd shoves off the bedcovers and hurries to the front door in white underwear and black socks. He steadies himself on the knob and shuts his eyes. Chill air rushes under the door; he curls his toes. But the hallway is silent."

4. "Today I'm five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark I'm changed to five, abracadabra. Before that I was three, then two, then one, then zero. 'Was I minus numbers?' 'Hmm?' Ma does a big stretch. 'Up in Heaven. Was I minus one, minus two, minus three – ?' "

5. "Something shifted, something so immense you could call it the world. Call it the world. The world shifted, catching lots of smart people off guard, churning up issues you thought had settled forever beneath the earth's crust."